Uber Gets Sexual Assault Liability Suits Trimmed in California

Uber Technologies Inc. won’t face fraud allegations in four cases where female passengers allege they were assaulted or harassed by drivers, and may be off the hook for punitive damages, a judge in San Francisco said Friday.

The passengers’ suits described a “toxic male culture” at Uber that led to the individual assaults. That culture started at the very top of the company, which prized growth above all else and exploited and endangered women in the process, the complaints allege. If the unnamed female plaintiffs had known Uber’s public statements about safety were false, they wouldn’t have hailed rides from ...